A flat flexible circuit conventionally includes an elongated flat flexible dielectric substrate having laterally spaced strips or conductors on one or both sides thereof. The conductors may be covered with a thin, flexible protective layer on one or both sides of the circuit. If protective layers are used, cutouts are formed therein to expose the underlying conductors at desired contact locations where the conductors are to engage the conductors of a complementary mating connecting device which may be a second flat flexible circuit, a printed circuit board, discrete electrical wires or the terminals of a mating connector.
A wide variety of connectors have been designed over the years for terminating or interconnecting flat flexible circuits with complementary mating connecting devices. Major problems continued to plague such connectors, particularly in the area of cost and reliability. Not only is the direct material costs of such connectors unduly high, but an undue amount of labor time is required in assembling such connectors. These problems have been solved by providing simple, inexpensive and reliable connector structures which do not use conductive terminals, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,039,600 and 6,077,124 which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The connector structures shown in the above-identified patents and other prior art use various forms of body members about which a flat flexible circuit is wrapped, with the conductors of the circuit facing away from the body member. Typically, the body member is generally flat or planar, and the conductors of the flat flexible circuit are biased into engagement with mating conductors in a direction generally perpendicular to the plane of the body member. This type of system requires structure which increases the thickness of the body member in order to resist deflection of normal load to effect the perpendicular connection. There is a need for such connectors for flat flexible circuitry which are relatively thin or provide a low profile, and the present invention is directed to satisfying that need and solving the problem of excessive thickness in connectors for flat flexible circuitry.